Argentina Courts Silicon Valley With AI Talent and Energy Pitch

Argentina's knowledge-economy exports crossed $10 billion for the first time in the twelve months through March, up 11.7% — and the Milei government spent a full day in San Francisco telling Silicon Valley why that number can multiply. The setting was "Argentina at Silicon Valley," an October 7 event at JPMorgan's San Francisco building, hosted by the Embassy of Argentina in the United States as part of SF Tech Week, the festival run by venture capital firm a16z (Andreessen Horowitz).

Ambassador Alec Oxenford, a tech entrepreneur whom President Javier Milei sent to Washington in late 2024, led the first edition. More than 500 founders, investors and executives showed up — roughly half of them startup founders themselves. They shared the room with Argentine-born companies Mercado Libre, Globant, Despegar and Tiendanube, staff from Google, Microsoft, AWS, NVIDIA and OpenAI, and investors including SoftBank, Goldman Sachs and Endeavor.

Why the numbers matter

The pitch rests on a sector that Ministry of Economy figures, based on INDEC data, say exported a record $9.6 billion in 2025, up 8.1%. The knowledge economy — software, IT and professional services sold abroad — employs more than 285,000 people in formal jobs. It now accounts for 53% of Argentina's services exports and ranks as the country's third-largest export complex, behind grains and oilseeds and oil and petrochemicals. For context: only two other export categories out-earn it.

What does this change for U.S. buyers?

The agenda spanned venture capital, with investors from a16z and MELI VC, biotechnology, and Argentina's potential to power AI's computing needs, with a panel featuring state oil company YPF. One session, "Development and Engineering Services from Argentina," drew about 120 people and put three operators on stage: Diego Fernández, senior vice president at Globant; Nacho De Marco of BairesDev; and Cesar D'Onofrio, CEO and co-founder of Making Sense, whose firm helps U.S. mid-market and private-equity-backed companies grow through AI-driven solutions and software modernization.

D'Onofrio said American buyers have changed what they want. "My message was simple: today it's a buyer's market," he said. "Companies aren't looking for capacity; they're looking for someone who has already solved their problem. That's why specialization and trust are what open doors, and trust is built in person."

Beyond writing code

For decades, Argentina sold U.S. companies on skilled engineers in a convenient time zone at a competitive price. Generative AI is testing that model. Industry body Argencon has acknowledged that AI brings challenges as well as opportunities for countries built on specialized talent. The panelists leaned toward opportunity.

"AI is shifting value away from writing code and toward solving business problems," D'Onofrio said, "and it makes projects viable that used to be too expensive, like modernizing legacy systems."

Fernández agreed that results depend on more than technology. Moving AI from research to real-world impact, he explained, requires understanding a company's organizational context, not just deploying models, pilots or agents. The opening for Argentine firms is to turn engineering expertise into measurable outcomes for U.S. clients — at Making Sense, AI and modernization projects are increasingly tied to wider business goals.

Power and talent

AI and energy came up again and again during the day, and D'Onofrio sees them as one opportunity. "Argentina has something very few countries have: top-tier talent and the energy to power AI infrastructure," he said. "It's an enormous opportunity, and we have to seize it."

Oxenford pressed the same point, citing Vaca Muerta's shale reserves and Patagonia's wind, sun and cold climate as reasons Argentina could host the energy and data centers AI will need. He also said Buenos Aires "can be for artificial intelligence what Amsterdam was for trade." The day closed with Oxenford in conversation with two Argentines who represent each half of that pitch: Vercel founder Guillermo Rauch and Vista Energy founder Miguel Galuccio.

The ambition is large. Argencon projects knowledge-economy exports could hit $30 billion within a decade — but only with macroeconomic stability, clear rules and a long-term talent policy. The talent part is already a worry: Argencon has warned that Argentina's 72nd-place ranking out of 91 in PISA mathematics puts the sector's future pipeline at risk.